As is well understood by those skilled in the art, isokinetic exercising equipment offers a distinct advantage over other forms of exercising devices in that it will permit the user to complete a full exercising stroke under conditions in which the resistance generated by the equipment fully matches the effort expended by the user at all points throughout the stroke. While with a barbell or the like the user has a constant weight or resistance which is overcome with increasing ease throughout the exercising stroke as the leverage, pivot points and moment arms associated with contraction of the user's muscles change throughout the stroke to obtain an increasing mechanical advantage over the weight, in isokinetics the progressively increasing advantage obtained by the user may result in the application of additional energy and speed to the equipment which is in turn matched by increased resistance of the latter to movement. Consequently, the user's muscles can be taxed to the same extent both at the beginning and end of the exercising stroke. Moreover, the amount of resistance generated by the equipment is customized to the physical characteristics of the user (weak or strong) simply by virtue of the amount of energy imparted to the equipment by the user.
Many prior isokinetic devices have, however, suffered from untoward complexity. Thus, they have been somewhat costly, have required more frequent maintenance, have occupied excessive space, and have been otherwise less than fully satisfactory.